The recent introduction in surgery of the mechanical circular staple devices which allow the mechanical placement of anastomoses, has made more frequent the requirement of purse-string sutures which are essential in order to suitably utilize said mechanical circular staplers.
Purse-string suture is a type of suture largely placed during surgical operations: its execution except when very narrow and deep areas is involved, is rather simple and quick to be carried out.
Purse-string sutures can be placed manually or mechanically by means of traditional purse-string instruments which all are characterized by having both the two jaws--holding in between the tissure edges where it has to be placed purse-string suture--and the two handles connecting jaw-holders and handle ringed ends, which extend rectilinearly.
Traditional purse-string instruments due to their straight form require for their utilization a space large enough so that they can be fitted end-to-end with the length of the straight needle when inserting the needle into the proper channel of the jaws.
However, should the purse-string suture be placed in difficult technical conditions such as when it has to be placed on organs which lay deep in restricted sites, then traditional purse-string instruments cannot be employed and consequently, the purse-string suture may only be manually carried out, sometimes with great difficulty, and that involves a considerable extension of the operating time as well as a less certainty of execution. Thus, in the digestive apparatus surgery, the placement of the purse-string suture, a procedure which is essential for a successful operation using mechanical circular staplers, may be effected with the purse-string instruments of the art, easily and quickly at the level of the small intestine and colon, while the same suture at the level of the extraperitoneal rectum is practically impossible because the total encumbrance encompassing the jaws of the instrument and the straight needle which must be passed through the proper channel of the jaws is generally bigger than the space at disposal to carry out this maneuver.